House prices continue to fall in our region as the Reserve Bank continues to increase the crash rate.
The Reserve Bank has lifted the official cash rate for the 6th month in a row, adding another quarter of a per cent to mortgage repayments.
It comes as the latest data from CoreLogic shows a 0.2 per cent drop in property values locally in September, compared to August.
That brings the average cost of a home down to $427,000 in the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday region.
CoreLogic’s Eliza Owen says it’s still unknown what things will look like moving forward.
“It’s a little unclear at this stage whether we’re getting to a drop in the cycle or if it’s more just a temporary slow down before the full impact of cash rates rising hits mortgage holders,” she says.
“Smaller housing markets or housing markets that are generally more affordable are largely more resilient to the rising interest rate and the reason for that is because they’re not as expensive you don’t take out as much debt to buy into these markets.”
It’s a moderate decline though compared to the rest of regional Queensland which saw housing prices drop 1.3 per cent over the month.
“It is a pretty steep drop by historic standards, but interestingly it’s eased a little on the previous month where we saw a 1.5 per cent decline in value,” Ms Owen says.
Image: AAP/ Darren England
